Free Just in Time for a Highlander by Gwyn Cready Page B

!”
    Undine chuckled. “If only we knew. I suspect he casts a noble shadow.”
    “Undine!”
    Serafina clapped her hands. “Perhaps that’s what changed Abby’s mind,” she said. “I believe until she escorted him to his bedchamber, she was quite against him joining us at dinner.”
    Undine smiled. “’Tis astonishing what the sight of a deftly prepared joint does for one’s appetite.”
    “Ha. Ha.” Abby sent a spray of water in their direction. “You two should be on the stage. Surely, some Covent Garden theatre is looking for entertainers. I shall have my fastest carriage prepared.”
    Undine added with a flash of sympathy, “’Tis a shame Abby is betrothed to another.”
    “Betrothed?!” Serafina said. “No! To whom? Can’t your magic help her, Undine?”
    “I’ve tried. I’m afraid my magic is powerless against Abby’s brand of determination.”
    Abby sighed. “I do not wish to marry, believe me. But if I cannot fund the canal, the only way to hold the clan together will be through an alliance with the leader of another, wealthier clan.”
    Serafina gasped. “Rosston.”
    “Aye,” Abby said. “But you do not need to gasp. He is a good enough man—though a wee bit bullheaded at times.”
    “A wee bit?” Undine did a backflip and disappeared under the water.
    Serafina’s face grew serious. “Oh, Abby, forgive me for offering unasked-for advice, but you mustna marry a man you don’t love. I should have never said ‘aye’ to my fiancé. I had my reasons, ’tis true. But it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life. I was very independent. I had an inheritance from my father. It wasn’t large, but it was enough for me to live on and run his small shipping business. Then I met Edward and, well, I think I was overcome by his kindness to me and the breathtaking blue of his eyes. ’Twas like standing atop Ben Cleuch and staring down into the loch below.”
    Abby thought of Duncan’s shining eyes. “Oh?”
    “And then each day, he did a little more and a little more. ’Twas just to take some of the burden of running the business off my shoulders, he said. But soon enough he made me feel as if I was unnecessary, and soon enough after that, I was unnecessary. ’Twould never happen with a man who truly loved you, of course, but with anything short of that…” Serafina paused, then added with a note of concern, looking at the spot where Undine had disappeared, “How long can she stay under?”
    “A long time.” Abby smiled, but Serafina’s story had left her vaguely unsettled. “They say her mother was a naiad.”
    Serafina’s eyes widened. “You’re joking?”
    “No family is without its dark secrets, I suppose.”
    Undine surfaced with hardly an intake of air. Her wet, blond curls clung to her back like scales on a fish.
    “The bottom is especially clear today,” Undine said. “And there’s a spectacular school of shad down there, all blue and shimmery.”
    “Ooh!” Abby swam toward the steep outcropping on the opposite bank. “I’m going to dive.”
    Undine swam in a slow circle around Serafina. “When we finish here, the two of us must adjourn someplace quiet for a talk about your cargo.”
    “Thank you. I don’t know when the ship is expected. It could be anytime between now and the end of the month. I just hope to be prepared.”
    Then, in a louder voice for Abby’s benefit, Undine said, “But tell me, Serafina, do we think this nobility of Mr. MacHarg’s is ever going to be tested?”
    Abby, who had been too busy weighing the bone-tingling excitement of MacHarg’s kiss against the risks of succumbing to that excitement to be bothered by a bit of teasing, sniffed. “I have no doubt I’d find it unwavering,” she said and dove into the water.

Eleven
    Duncan made his way along the sun-swept path—if the lightly trod grasses could be called a path at all. The morning sky was a vibrant blue, but neither it nor the sun’s rays had been able to penetrate